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CtoptyBlifi -xl ' Sir , , September jf ^ f 21 * YOUR readers , I a ^ V / P 4 # ^ fffy have been genera ^ M W Stmb the Review of the " W » jfM | p C ontroversy" ( p . 477 ) . J&mmm
grg-t pleasure m offering ; te | ^| J lowing communication , ^ li ^ h ^ pi will perceive , is immediately Q ^ i ^ gS ^ a with that highly interesting subjectl A few days since I was introduced to the acquaintance of an officer of the British army in India , who bore a distinguished part in the late Mahratta war , of which he has since become the
very able historian , In conversation with this gentleman , who , on the close of that war , resided at Madras , and has very lately returned to England , I sought to gratify my curiosity respecting Rammohun Roy , whom I soon found to be his friend and
correspondent . My new acquaintance very obligingly offered me the two pamphlets which you have reviewed , and a letter from Rammohun , which had accompanied t ^ m . This letter is dkted Calcutta , Sept .
5 , 1820 . After expressing " grateful acknowledgments" of his correspondent Colonel B- r ' s " frequent remembrance , " Rammohun thus proceeds : " As to the opinion intimated by . Sir Samuel T r , respecting the medium
course in Christian dogmas , I never have attempted to oppose it . I regret only that the followers of Jesus , iii general , should have paid much greater attention to inquiries after his nature than to the observance of his commandments , when we are well aware that no human acquirements can ever discover the nature even of the most common and visible
things , and , moreover , that such inquiries are not enjoined by the divine revelation . " On this consideration I have compiled several passages of the New Testament which I thought essential to Christianity , and published them under the designation of Precepts of Jesus , $ t which the Missionaries at Shrainampoor l * ave expressed great displeasure , and called
11 ie , in their review of the tract , an injurer of the cause of truth . I was , therefore , under the necessity of defending myself in an Appeal to the Christian Public ' , a few copies of which tracts I have the pleasure to send you , under the care of Captain S— , and intreat your acceptance of them . "I return , with my sincere acknowled gments , the work which Sir S . T . was
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so kind as to lend me . May I request the favour # f you to forward it to Sir S . . / ¥ * ., as well as a copy of each of the pam - Jfhlets , with my best compliments , and to Jrafroiir me with your and Sir S . T . ' s ^• plaion respecting my idea of Christianity , BS expressed in those tracts , when an opportunity « iay occur ; as I am always open to conviction and correction ?"
Rammohun then expresses his determination ** to leave India" for Europe as soon as lie can arrange his affairs , and his desire , which , however , he did not accomplish , €€ of going in the same ship" with his correspondent . Yet Colonel B . has no doubt of
Raminohun ' s continued determination to visit England . From the first paragraph , extracted from the Bramin ' letter , it may , 1 think , be conjectured , that he ' attributes to our baviour a superhuman , though by no means a divine nature .
This , after all that has been advanced to the contrary , I must consider as leaving Rammohun in possession of as strong a claim to the title of a Christian Unitarian , as if he thought of i € the man Christ Jesus , " in the manner which appears to my apprehension more scriptural . < € The
humanity of Christ , " as my friend Mr . Fox has well remarked in his Lectures , ( 1819 , ) < c is not essential to Unitarianism ;—such limitation is inconsistent with the etymology and meaning of the term , and its historical use . Dr . Price was an Unitarian as well as
Dr . Priestley , and so is every worshiper of the Father only , whether he believe that Christ was created before all worlds , or first existed when born of Mary . "
There is another subject connected with India , not yet mentioned in your work , as I recollect , in which Unitarians may be expected , in no long time , to take a lively interest . I refer to the efforts of some liberal-minded
Europeans at Madras to avail themselves of the enlightened views entertained by , the Marquis of Hastings respecting the liberty of the press . Since the public discussion of that subject , at the India House in July
last , I bave no scruple to name another friend of Rammohun , the Honourable Colonel Stanhope , who resided at M a dras , on , the conclusion of the Myhratta war , in which lie bore a command , as one of the chief pro-
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Rammohun Roy and Indian Unitarian Controversy . 515
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1821, page 515, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2504/page/11/
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